Man found dead by firemen, not mother who lived with him

Taipei, Aug. 9 (CNA) A New Taipei resident was found dead by firefighters who broke into his room Friday, while his mother, who lived in the same apartment and had not seen her son for nearly two months, did not suspect anything was amiss.

Firefighters arrived at the apartment of the 63-year-old man, identified only by his family name Wu, after receiving a report from his older brother that there might be a problem, according to a spokesperson for the Xinzhuang Police Precinct.

Wu's brother, who lives in an apartment on a higher floor in the same building in Xinzhuang District, said he called police to the scene after noticing through a crack of the room's door that Wu was lying suspiciously still on his bed, the spokesperson said.

The older brother told police that he had gone downstairs to see his brother because he had not seen him for a while and was wandering how was he doing.

Although Wu lived in the same apartment with his 83-year-old mother, the woman did not sense that her son had died in his room, saying only that Wu usually locked himself in and did not want anyone to enter his room, according to the police spokesperson.

The spokesperson cited Wu's mother as saying she last saw Wu in mid-June and said she thought the bad smell in the apartment was that of a dead cat or rat.

Police could not confirm when Wu passed away, but Wu's dried-out corpse suggested he may have been dead for some time.

They suspect that Wu's mother did not find anything out of the ordinary because the apartment where she and her younger son lived was a mess and because of the general lack of interaction between the two, the spokesperson said.

According to sources, Wu had been jobless for a long time and was living off the government subsidies received by his mother.

Initial findings in the case suggest that Wu might have died suddenly, but further investigation is needed to determine how and when he died, the spokesperson said.